Since 2014, I have been enjoying a two month-per-year fellowship each
spring at the Advanced Study
Instutute in Göttingen, Germany. To my great surprise, what had been a
five-year appointment was made permanent this year.

The Kolleg comprises a small academic staff, led by the director, Martin van
Gelderen, a select group of international senior fellows in a variety of
humanities and social science disciplines, and a larger number of postdoctoral
fellows from various parts of the globe distributed among three working groups,
currently Enlightments, Human Rights, and Primate Cognition. In addition the
Kolleg hosts distinguished visiting lecturers, and organizes symposia.

My colleague and long-term collaborator, A.W. Eaton, a professor of philosophy
at the University of Illinois-Chicago, was a senior fellow at the Kolleg for
the month of June. We shared an office so that we could work together on our
project on the philosophy of the aging and degradation of materials. This
long-term endeavor will allow us to contribute to the collaborative project on
conservation science and the character of material things conducted by Bard Graduate
Center; the Humboldt University, Berlin; and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Prof.
Eaton and I made considerable progress in writing our preliminary paper. I was
also able to prepare a number of lectures and symposium papers for fall events
in North America and Europe.

As a member of the advisory board of the Zentrale Kustodie (university
collections, museums, and gardens) of the Georg-August University, Göttingen, I
participated in discussions concerning the development of the planned Forum Wissen
as a research and teaching laboratory and exhibition venue for the university
collections. I met twice with the president of the university. I also met regularly
with the director of the Zentrale Kustodie, with the newly appointed professor
of the materiality of knowledge, and with several collection curators.

The Lichtenberg-Kolleg has a warm and purposeful tone set by the director and
staff for which my enthusiasm is unabated. I am most grateful for the wonderful
opportunities given by this fellowship year by year. My association with the
Lichtenberg-Kolleg, the Zentrale Kustodie, and with other parts of the
university, has become a firm constituent of my scholarly identity.

—Ivan
Gaskell, Professor of Cultural History and Museum Studies; Head of the Focus
Project